Jury finds Victoria woman responsible for crash injuring 3

A Victoria woman has been ordered to pay more than $28,000 in damages to a Bloomington family she injured in a 2006 motor vehicle wreck.

On Tuesday, a Victoria County jury found that Barbara Y. Newton's negligence caused a December 2006 wreck that injured Carlos Castro, Patricia Enriquez and their minor daughter, Alyssa Castro.

While the jury awarded Carlos Castro $8,160.13 for past medical expenses, mental anguish, loss of earning capacity and physical impairment, they awarded Enriquez $16,707.71 for her past and future expenses related to the accident.

Messages left for both the plaintiffs' attorney, Bernard T. Klimist, and the defendant's attorney, David H. Bradley, were not returned as of Tuesday evening.

District Judge Stephen Williams presided over the trial.

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against Newton in district court in November 2008.

In December 2006, the plaintiffs were traveling south on a U.S. Highway 87 feeder road in a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Carlos Castro, according to the lawsuit.

As Castro steered to the left to enter the southbound entrance ramp onto the highway, the defendant, who was traveling north on the feeder road in her Mercury Mountaineer, allegedly failed to yield to the right-of-way to the plaintiffs' vehicle when she approached the entrance ramp intersection.

The right front end of the defendant's Mountaineer ended up striking the front of the plaintiffs' Malibu.

The lawsuit contends that at the time of the accident, the defendant was allegedly under the influence of alcohol.

The plaintiffs accused the defendant of being responsible for the accident because she negligently failed to exercise due care to avoid the collision; failed to pay attention to traffic; failed to control the speed of her vehicle; operated her vehicle while under the influence; and she failed to timely apply her brakes to avoid the collision.